Heather Brown | Notes on Looking

Drifter it is called. Does it look like someone trying to salvage a broken geometry by pushing in shims to prop up polygons? The surface is dirty and smudged on this object, or on these objects. I begin now to wonder how they are adhered, the shims, the parts? How do they hold together, these canvas planes? Old fashion rabbit skin glue is used not as a prep (I think), but a finish, perhaps on the surface of the canvas. (I see now, as I write, that rust is also an ingredient in this painting. I wish I’d read more closely the checklist when I was in the gallery. A lesson I keep learning: read the material offered and also question myself most when I am complacent in my certainties, as I was certain at Ebb Tide that by seeing I could be sure of what was present.) In the second room I find Frame Work, also by Wyatt Kahn. Is this title a verb? As in to ‘frame’ work? Does it refer to artwork that becomes also a framing device for another surface, making the framed surface art? There are three framed voids in this object (which is made from medium density fiberboard wrapped in clean canvas, I learn). The bottom-most of these areas of wall that are revealed (showcased?) is a cleft between two large planes; it is wider at the base where it is open, the frame is completed by the artist’s addition of three slender canvas-wrapped shard shapes that line the two long vertical sides and the open bottom. The top of this space creates itself from...

Dear friends of NoL, Specific Merchandise and Brooks Hudson Thomas are hosting an art sale this coming Saturday, December 4th with all of the spectacular art on offer priced under $301. The event will be held at the home of their operations, Specific Merchandise, 7374 Beverly Blvd., LA, 90036, tele. 323-930-0220. Let me turn up the heat a little on this offer. I visited Brooks et Cie on Saturday and dropped off thirteen of my own drawings. Yes, you read that correctly. May I shyly tell you that I’ve wanted to show you my work for a decade? When I’m not writing, when I’m done working for the architects, after I’m done going all over town and talking with dealers and curators and writers and other artists – I go home and….. work some more. Some of you (many of you?) will know this because I’ve mailed you a drawing as a thank you or a greeting or as a congratulatory work of art when your show has particularly moved me. For those of you who aren’t aware – I’ve had a decade long practice of mailing a drawing (or several) to artists that I admire. I’m up to some 250 art correspondences. Maybe more – beyond knowing that I’ve sent something to each artist D and I’ve bought work from over the years I haven’t kept track. Having said all that, I’ll say more: I’m proud of these drawings I’m showing and I’d love for you to see them. I hope you’ll stop by Specific on Beverly and take a look. (Did I mention that everything is for...